The fourth series of Lost kicked off on Sky One last night, Sunday February 3, pulling in the highest non-sports multichannel-only rating of the day with 1.1 million viewers.

Lost, which features a group of plane crash survivors stranded on an island, attracted a multichannel share of 5%, between 9pm and 10pm, according to unofficial overnight figures.

The new series was down on the launch of the third run - the first on Sky One - which pulled in 1.4 million viewers in a 10pm slot in November 2006.

However, Sky One will be pleased with Lost's figures last night, after a gap of more than a year between the two series premieres.

The first two seasons premiered on Channel 4, but the terrestrial broadcaster was outbid by Sky One for the third series.

Lost's 9pm competition last night in multichannel homes included a repeat of I'm Alan Partridge on Dave, which attracted 160,000 viewers; The Great British Sunday on BBC4 with 255,000; and BBC3's live Africa Cup of Nations football, which drew 238,000 between 8pm and 10.30pm.

On ITV2, a new episode of US import Supernatural drew 598,000 viewers over an hour from 9.15pm; while on Five US a CSI: NY repeat drew 328,000 from 9pm.

Sky Sports 1's live Premier League coverage yesterday afternoon attracted 1.1 million viewers for Newcastle's 1-1 draw with Middlesbrough over two hours from 1.30pm. Viewing of the match peaked at 1,288 million in the quarter hour from 3pm.

Live coverage of Fulham's 2-1 defeat of Aston Villa, also on Sky Sports 1, was watched by 1.069 million viewers between 4pm and 6pm.